The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program. The new variety was discovered as the result of a planned mutation breeding program. Unnamed, unpatented Heptacodium miconioides were treated with an x-ray treatment. The treated plant material was grown out and observed for commercially interesting characteristics. The inventor discovered the new variety in 2008 at a commercial nursery in Grand Haven, Mich.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘SMNHMRF’ was first performed during 2013 at a commercial nursery in Grand Haven, Mich. by softwood cuttings. Subsequent propagation of three generations has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and have been reproduced true to type in successive generations.